Susan Carroll Fellowship
The Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail‘s Ken Ward Jr. reports that a federal-state probe has found out why two coal miners died in a January fire at a Massey Energy mine in Logan County, W.Va. Contrary to federal law, the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine’s primary escape tunnel was not totally blocked off from a conveyor belt…
Read MoreSt. Petersburg Times reporter Sydney Freedberg, with CAR analysis from Connie Humburg and research from Carolyn Edds, investigated the dealings of the Orlando-based Enterprise Florida — “a public-private partnership that helps determine where incentive money gets spent to create jobs in the state” — and found questionable dealings. Their “investigation shows that a corporate seat…
Read MoreAndrew Tangel and Mike Chalmers of The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal found that sex offenders in the state of Delaware have been inadequately monitored. By mapping “the addresses of more than 1,200 moderate- and high-risk sex offenders, 1,900 child care centers and 350 public and private schools“, Tangel and Chalmers found hundreds of instances where…
Read MoreMichael Fabey of Aerospace Daily reported that while aviation-related deaths have decreased, serious accidents have seen a dramatic increase in 2006 over the past three-year period. Analysis of the Army’s aircraft records database revealed this trend. “The largest increase, percentage-wise, has been in the number of incidents involving unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – which only…
Read MoreJonathan D. Glater of The New York Times reports that, as part of post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts, that Federal Education Department shared personal information obtained on student loan applications with the FBI. “Under the program, called Project Strikeback, the Education Department received names from the F.B.I. and checked them against its student aid database, forwarding information…Neither…
Read MoreThe Las Vegas Review-Journal is running a series entitled “The Long Shadow of 9/11” in which they’ve localized the big-picture security issues facing the nation. The stories include an examination of how local police have poured vast resources into anti-terrorism policing; how the FBI has sent national security letters to casino-hotels to access guest information;…
Read MoreUsing federal court documents filed in the case against Dr. James Shortt, Charles Chandler of The Charlotte Observer uncovered an alarming case of steroid abuse in the NFL. Shortt prescribed a dangerous combination of preformance enhancing drugs to members of the Carolina Panthers without regard for the potential ill effects on the players. “Medical records…
Read MoreIn a recent installment of the on-going series “House of Lies,” the Miami Herald’s Debbie Cenziper and Larry Lebowitz uncovered more corruption in the Miami-Dade Housing Agency. Oscar Rivero had become a favored developer for the local housing authority – collecting millions, yet building nothing. “Today, the land where Rivero promised dozens of homes for…
Read MoreA five-part series by Jeffrey Meitrodt of the Times-Picayune details the situation that unfolded at Memorial Medical Center following Hurricane Katrina, including allegations of the murder of 4 eldery patients at the hands of Dr. Anna Pou and 2 nurses. This series appears as part of the Times-Picayune’s coverage of “Katrina: One Year Later.”
Read MoreChuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper of the Los Angeles Times report on an epic development project in Nevada – a “67-square-mile tract of empty desert will blossom into one of the biggest cities in the fastest-growing state in the country and the projected home to more than 200,000 people.” The project is on track…
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